{"id":48570,"date":"2021-02-16T15:38:31","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T22:38:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/u-s-sens-bennet-hickenlooper-trumps-actions-warranted-impeachment\/"},"modified":"2021-02-16T22:38:31","modified_gmt":"2021-02-16T22:38:31","slug":"u-s-sens-bennet-hickenlooper-trumps-actions-warranted-impeachment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/u-s-sens-bennet-hickenlooper-trumps-actions-warranted-impeachment\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Sens. Bennet, Hickenlooper: Trump\u2019s actions warranted impeachment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Democratic
Democratic House impeachment managers, from left, Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I.; Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif.; Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md.; and Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., leave the Senate chamber, escorted at right by Acting Sergeant at Arms Jennifer Hemingway, after the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump ended Saturday at the Capitol in Washington. Trump was found not guilty of the charge of inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters.<\/span>J. Scott Applewhite\/Associated Press<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, both Democrats, voted to convict former President Donald Trump on Saturday for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.<\/p>\n

The impeachment trial in the Senate began Feb. 9 with footage from Jan. 6, when the Capitol building was stormed by an angry mob of rioters. The trial did not include witness testimonies.<\/p>\n

The House impeachment managers, including Reps. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., and Diana DeGette, D-Colo., presented the Senate with evidence consisting of videos and tweets from Jan. 6 and the surrounding days. They rested their case Thursday afternoon. Trump\u2019s defense team rested its argument Friday afternoon after three hours.<\/p>\n

After voting to convict Trump on Saturday, Hickenlooper said in a statement that Trump, \u201cincited an insurrection and threatened the peaceful transfer of power \u2013 the very bedrock of our democracy.\u201d On Friday, before voting, he said that not holding Trump accountable could have high consequences.<\/p>\n

\"Hickenlooper\"
Hickenlooper<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI mean, if you can\u2019t hold a president accountable of a high crime and misdemeanor of this nature, then you have to accept the \u2026 likelihood that someone else will try it again,\u201d Hickenlooper said in an interview with The Durango Herald<\/em>. \u201cHe\u2019s not going to be the only demagogue that tries to steal power in this country. This is a democracy that we hope will endure for another couple centuries, at least. And we just can\u2019t leave the door open for this type of conduct again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Hickenlooper and Bennet were outspoken about their decisions to convict on Twitter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my view, (Trump\u2019s) egregious refusal to accept the results of a lawful election and his intimidation of election officials were sufficient to warrant conviction,\u201d Bennet said in a statement. \u201cIn the end, he stopped at nothing, inciting a mob to attack the Capitol to overturn the lawful election of President Biden, putting American lives, principles, and democratic institutions at mortal risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Feb. 9, before the trial began, Bennet alongside Sen. Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n, D-N.M., and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., wrote and signed a letter to request additional mental health resources for employees working in the U.S. Capitol.<\/p>\n

\u201cJanuary 6 was a dark day for our country \u2013 especially for those working in the Capitol complex,\u201d Bennet said in a tweet after the letter was released. \u201cMy colleagues and I are calling for additional resources to support the mental health of Capitol workers in the wake of the attack.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter is addressed to the architect of the Capitol, Senate acting sergeant at arms, librarian of Congress and the U.S. Capitol Police acting chief of police. In it, the senators ask to expand the emotional and behavioral health services and resources available to those who were in the Capitol building Jan. 6.<\/p>\n

\"Bennet\"
Bennet<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cAs we work toward accountability and governing after the attack, Congress must ensure that support services, including emotional and behavioral health services, and resources are available to and appropriate for all who work in the Capitol to help promote healing,\u201d the letter says.<\/p>\n

On Friday night, after Trump\u2019s team rested its case and the Senate wrapped up its Q&A session but before the final vote, Hickenlooper said the footage played by the House impeachment managers gave him more insight into the danger he and his fellow senators were in Jan. 6.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t help but see that (footage) and wonder what might have happened, what else could have happened that didn\u2019t just because of chance in many cases, but also the heroic efforts of the Capitol Police and so many others who were trying to push back the mob,\u201d Hickenlooper said in an interview with the Herald<\/em>.<\/p>\n

He said he was most affected by the way the House impeachment managers put together the timeline of the riot and the senators\u2019 movements on Jan. 6, revealing how close they were to being overwhelmed by rioters. He said he was not the only one affected by the new footage and the timeline.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen that video stopped and the House managers didn\u2019t say anything for a full 30 seconds, I mean, you could hear a pin drop,\u201d Hickenlooper said. \u201cEverybody was transfixed by that, and I think everyone who didn\u2019t already have a sense of how close we came to a real disaster, a catastrophe \u2026 they did watching that video.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grace George is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

for mental health resources for Capitol workers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1137,481,28,29,25],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-48570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-donald-trump","tag-gov-john-hickenlooper","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-u-s-sen-michael-bennet"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48570"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=48570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}